A History of the World Book #1 Before History
Before agriculture, history is long, very long and dark and murky. The basics are as follows
Humans diverged from great apes (chimps and bonobos) approximately 6-7 million years ago.
Australopithecus, is known as on of the earliest hominids, they were bipedal and found in eastern and southern Africa. They emerged around 4 million years ago.
From this came Homo Erectus 1.5 million years ago, they had similar body proportions to modern humans, used tools and were the first to control and manage fire. This allowed them to manipulate their environment. This was though, a long process and actually learning how to make fire took time. They expanded to the Near East and Asia. They engaged in big game hunting and used stone tools.
A distinction between male and female was made stronger in cultural life and reproductive life as females stopped entering in estrous cycles (entering in heat, activitly seeking a male). This made sexual selection a reality.
Homo Neanderthalensis (named after a skeleton was found in the Neander Valley in Germany) emerged about 400,000 years ago and spread through much of Europe.
They were shorter but stockier. They had smaller frontal lobes than Homo Sapians but larger Occipital lobes, which benefited being big game hunters which they were. Their is evidence that they buried the dead some times.
They seemed to maintain a low population and interbred. This made them very easily supplanted by Homo Sapians in 40,000 BC.
Denisovans were a subspecies similar to Neanderthals who lived mostly in South East Asia. Most humans have some Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA.
Homo Sapians emerged from Africa around 300,000 years ago.
They began to develop advanced cognitive skills, social cordination, burial of the dead, seafaring, toolmaking and the arts among other skills. Language developed but it's origins remain murky
They lived as hunter gatherers until 12,000 BC when the agricultural revolution took place (Neolithic Revolution). The revolution happened independently in many regions in the world where it was possible.
Following the Agricultural Revolution, trade routes were established, travel was made easier through the usage of domesticated animals, and most importantly, societies could begin as you did not need a lot of space or to be nomadic to produce a lot of food. The Bronze Age began.
